my calling in life

I know there are people out there who think I missed my calling in life. Often when I have occassion to work with professionals I can hear the unspoken questions: why, with my abilities, am I "just" a mom? How can I stay at home when I'm so good at ----? I'm never offended, in fact these experiences just prove to me that I picked the right "job". What other occupation would allow me to use ALL of my areas of expertise?

Since this is my journal, of a sort, I want to make note of the two most recent times this has happened. I know I risk truly "tooting my own horn" in this post, so please forgive me.

Today, I taught the third Junior Achievement lesson to Bucket's class at school. With the first two lessons, his teacher used the time to take care of things she needed to do outside the classroom. I volunteer in the class once a week, so she knows I can handle the kids. Today, she actually sat through portions of my lesson. When I finished, she pulled me aside and asked if I used to teach (like professionally). I smiled and said, no, but I came from a long line of teachers and I started "teaching" in my mom's classroom when I was in high school. "Well, you're very good at it," she said. She complemented how I organized the discussion. She's seen the lesson taught many times by different people and never seen it done so well.

In January we took Bucket to see a child psychologist. We had to wait three months to be able to see him, since he is the head of the clinic. But since he was the one recomended, I figured it was worth the wait to see the "head" doctor. He talked to me first, then brought Bucket in. After one of my comments to Bucket, the psychologist said to me "now, your degree's in Psychology....?" I smiled and said no, it was in something else. I was just flattered that he was assuming I had a degree. It felt good to know I came across as educated. "Too bad," he said. "If you did, I'd have a job for you." I chuckled, passing it off as a complement. "No, really. If you had a degree in Psychology I'd hire you on the spot," he replied.

Excellent Teacher... Child Psychologist...
of course I should be a mother!